Wednesday, July 31, 2013

The Girl in the Video Epilogue: I Want My MTN!

Or rather, MTN wanted his MTV, so I tracked down the 20 people who kindly agreed to be interviewed for the first-ever oral history of the music video from the POV of the stars. No, not the bands—the stars. The ones who shine in the distance, unnamed. In other words, the love interests.

I am profoundly happy about the enthusiastic response the series has gotten.

“Swafford, who has long shied away from the spotlight, was recently found by Marc Tyler Nobleman, author of the Noblemania blog, while he was working on a piece about all the lovely ladies who appeared in the ‘Separate Ways’ video [MTN: Actually the project, as you have seen, is about lovely ladies from 13 videos; there was only one in ‘Separate Ways’]. She declined to be interviewed or photographed, but gave him a short statement acknowledging that his detective work was spot on and giving him the low down on her current activities.”

“Total score for Nobleman!” (Steve Spears, Stuck in the ‘80s)“…big shout out to author Marc Tyler Nobleman, who’s been tracking down and interviewing a lot of the video babes of MTV’s classic era. … They’re pretty entertaining. (SPOILERS: When music videos first became a thing, nobody knew what the hell they were doing!) Check it out!” (Popdose)

“[Marc] was able to...get Kym [Herrin] to spill her guts, to agree to a feature story…who is this dude? Hugh Hefner? Marquis de Sade?” (Santa Barbara News Press Blog)

“I guess if I had just made one video, it would have led to fame of some kind. Should have tried out rather than just sitting home watching them.” (friend Tammy, on Facebook)

“I’ve gone down the rabbit hole with your blog. Literally cannot stop reading. So, thank you for this! I’m in awe of your research abilities. I think of myself as being pretty darned good when it comes to stuff like this, but you, sir, are the man!” (Shana, by email)

6 comments:

Marc, Congratulations again on this wonderful series of interviews. I enjoyed them all and hopefully sent a few readers your way. Now that they are ALL posted, I intend to do some further posting about them. You should be rightly proud.

I think you've found the subject matter for your next book. Since MTV now has distanced itself from its storied musical past in favor of reality TV that really isn't, IMPO (more exploitation than anything else in some shows), maybe you could write a book that would complement the one the VJ's themselves wrote.......

just found this and it is fascinating! so much of the reaction seems to be from 80s boys, of course, but 80s girls remember these videos well. we hated some mtv chicks (tawny kitaen) and loved others (bunty bailey) and they often sparked trendlets (I remember my cousin and my best friend running out to get the white leather jacket from "separate ways").

looking back now, it's interesting and probably telling in all sorts of ways that we didn't really make a distinction between female musicians and video chicks when we responded to the visuals. I remember copying joan jett's "crimson and clover" eye makeup and martha davis' retro black suit from "only the lonely," and envying susanna hoffs for the way the guys swooned over that eye-flicking moment in "walk like an Egyptian" just as we envied wendy frazier for the way they swooned over that last shot with her gazing at the guy as they drive away.

it was amazing to see ms. frazier, actually, because we ADORED that video and tried to get that look all summer of '84. the eliminator girls were fun but my particular group didn't go for that style, but the way they made her over was totally awesome. the hair, the makeup, the OUTFIT! the pink shoes were 9West- I had them in two colors.

followup would be fascinating. the "sister christian" girl brings back such memories, since my friends and I graduated from catholic high school just as that song hit. I've always wondered about jenny from "867-5309"- we envied her hair so desperately! and there was the girl in the payolas' "eyes of a stranger," with the ruffled blouse. thanks for this- so evocative.

* Fairy Spell (nonfiction picture book about the two girls in WWI England took photos of what they claimed were real fairies); illustrated by Eliza Wheeler; Clarion* Thirty Minutes Over Oregon (nonfiction picture book about the unprecedented accomplishment—and redemption—of a Japanese WWII pilot), illustrated by Melissa Iwai; Clarion

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